KEVON FELMINE

Se­nior Re­porter

kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt

Sev­er­al pieces of lit­er­a­ture linked low-self es­teem and de­pres­sion among moth­ers with post-preg­nan­cy weight. But 12 years af­ter de­liv­er­ing her son, Marisa Khan-Lutch­man will hit the stage at the World Women’s Physique Elite Pro Cham­pi­onship in Bar­ba­dos this week­end.

Khan-Lutch­man’s suc­cess is not a show-off but proof that moth­ers can achieve the body they want with hard work and de­ter­mi­na­tion. The 40-year-old from Clax­ton Bay par­tic­i­pat­ed in her third re­gion­al com­pe­ti­tion at the Garfield Sobers Gym­na­si­um in St Michael, Bar­ba­dos. Body­build­ing for the past 12 years and com­pet­ing for the last eight, her train­er Waz­im Mo­hammed said she was in the best form of her life.

In a sit­down at Health and Fit­ness Gym in Gulf View last week, Khan-Lutch­man re­vealed her fun­ny be­gin­nings in body­build­ing.

“Some­one com­ment­ed, ba­si­cal­ly say­ing that I had been train­ing for so long and did not have abs. We de­cid­ed to show them we have abs. I end­ed up on the stage. It was nerve-wrack­ing ini­tial­ly, but I got ac­cus­tomed af­ter sev­er­al com­pe­ti­tions,” Khan Lutch­man said.

Khan-Lutch­man is the proud moth­er of Zachari­ah Khan-Lutch­man, 11, who al­so fol­lows his moth­er’s lead with gym train­ing and karate. Af­ter giv­ing birth, Khan-Lutch­man want­ed to tone her body and build mus­cle, so she em­barked on a healthy di­et and ex­er­cise regime. She is not alone as a mom­my body­builder, say­ing she met oth­ers who love the fit­ness life. There­fore, she be­lieves moth­ers low on self-con­fi­dence be­cause of ex­tra body fat can achieve a toned body. She said it was not about build­ing big mus­cles but get­ting a fit body that pro­vides con­fi­dence and over­all health.

“It is achiev­able. Just do not be lazy about it. Once you want it bad enough, you will work for it and achieve it. Once you have a goal, work to­wards your goal. There are a lot of women whose self-es­teem is very low be­cause of how they look. They tend to com­pen­sate for it in oth­er ways. Just get up and get it done. The hard­est thing is to get up and start. Once you start, it gets eas­i­er.”

Khan-Lutch­man and Mo­hammed left for Bar­ba­dos on Thurs­day, con­fi­dent of a good plac­ing. She has been prepar­ing her body since Jan­u­ary, eat­ing a di­et of fish, beef, chick­en and veg­eta­bles. She did two hours of car­dio work­outs be­fore hit­ting the weights six days a week.

Mo­hammed said he nev­er thought Khan want­ed the stage but pushed her af­ter see­ing her po­ten­tial. He said when peo­ple want to make a state­ment with their train­ing, they could show the coun­try. He said the key to her win­ning was re­main­ing fem­i­nine while hav­ing a tight physique.

“This is the most con­fi­dent I have ever been since train­ing her. I am 100 per cent sure that she could win this. If she does not win, it just hap­pens that the per­son who did was bet­ter,” Mo­hammed said.

Mo­hammed said women’s body­build­ing was more about physique rather than mass. He en­cour­ages every­one to get in­to the gym and lift weights for the health ben­e­fits.

“It does not have to be for body­build­ing but for body evo­lu­tion.”